Let's Skip the Mistletoe
by Ryssasaurus Rex
Summary: Lydia Martin is not as self-centered and uncaring as a lot of the student body thinks she is. She's also not as human as they think either. Peter Hale is just as creepy and underhanded as everyone thinks. But he does make a good point when he approaches Lydia a week before Winter Break. It's a proposition she just can't turn down. (warnings and notes inside)


**A/N:** I refuse to let Erica and Boyd stay dead. So here, let me fix things a la Peter Hale. This is basically a big load of self-indulgent fix-it. This is how things went after 3A and you can't tell me otherwise. Deal with it. [unBETAed like whoa]

**Possible Warnings:** allusions to past abuse, canon-typical gore and violence, resurrection (if anything needs to be added feel free to tell me via comment)

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As a rule Peter keeps his distance from Lydia. Scott's told him to keep away, Stiles and Allison have both threatened him to keep his distance, and Aiden's developed something of a protective streak and isn't shy about it. So, Lydia doesn't see much of Peter at all and she's fine with it that way. It's understandable when she shows surprise at him appearing by her car at the end of the school day.

From beside her she hears Aiden growl, Ethan quickly appearing by his side along with Danny (and Lydia is so thankful he's finally been filled in on the whole mess that is their lives) who gently takes her hand in his. Peter seems unfazed by the pair of alphas staring him down, one of them baring his teeth. He simply keeps looking at Lydia, infuriating smile on his smug face.

"Ahh, exactly who I was looking for," he practically cooed. "Plus a human," he added with a quick up and down glace at Danny. That got a snarl out of Ethan.

Lydia didn't like being cornered and she really didn't like stalker werewolves leaning on her car. The irritation was more than enough to help her push her unease away. "Either get to the point or get lost," she snapped. "And either way get off my car."

Peter complied without batting an eyelash. He took a few steps to the side, making sure to not get any closer to Lydia than he already was. "The point of this visit, my dear, is that I need your help."

Lydia raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Oh, so you decided to ask rather than possessing me and making me think I'm losing my mind? How positively gentlemanly of you!"

He opened his mouth with what Lydia was sure would have been a nasty comment, but he seemed to think better of it and shook his head slightly. "Alright, I deserved that."

Danny's comment of "And more" went ignored.

"But this isn't about me," Peter continued. "This is about you three and those two pups the alpha pack killed."

Lydia blinked. She hadn't really gotten the chance to get to know Erica or Boyd between finding out about werewolves and the pair of them dying. She felt awful that she hadn't been able to help them and she knew Aiden and Ethan both regretted everything that had happened. However, this was Peter Hale she was talking to and she'd be a fool to not remain suspicious of him.

"What about them?" Ethan said, his voice a little less hostile.

"I need your help to bring them back."

If Peter was to be believed, which was a stretch if you asked Lydia, between her, the twins, the new moon, and the newly powered Nemeton Peter could bring Boyd and Erica back to life, the same way he resurrected himself. He promised Lydia that the process would be cleaner and less traumatic since it wasn't the dead themselves trying to claw their way back to life, but the living trying to pull them back from death. It would take three nights to complete.

Another thing Peter had told them was that it would most likely drain Ethan and Aiden of their alpha statuses, leaving them omegas. "I'm sure Scott would welcome you with open arms to his pack, though," Peter sneered. Lydia knew Scott hadn't offered Peter a place in his new pack, to no one's surprise.

That and the prospect of lifted guilt seemed to be enough to have them both agreeing to help. Lydia was sick of all the needless death going on around them and if she had the power to undo some of it she would. She had no doubt in her mind that if things went wrong Peter would end up dead for it and that was one corpse Lydia really wouldn't mind stumbling upon. With everyone in agreement they met in the woods the night of the full moon.

Lydia was to expect three days of mild hallucinations and she was sure she'd wake up barefoot and naked standing before this tree stump at least once, but if it brought back a pair of unfortunate teenagers from death then she figured she could deal. Maybe even enlist her werewolf not-boyfriend for sleep walking watch. Normally, it'd be Allison she'd ask, but it had been agreed that telling the pack would over complicate things. Plus, Lydia knew for a fact that Allison was dealing with her own issues, the darkness from the Nemeton manifesting in night terrors, leaving Allison drained and prone to falling asleep in class.

Derek had buried Erica and Boyd in the ruins of the old Hale house, just like he'd done with Peter, though with far more tenderness and ceremony. Peter was planning on digging them up and bringing them to the Nemeton on the third night, once the magic and power had gathered and had a chance to grow in power.

"They've been dead for a long while, the closer they are to the Nemeton the smoother their resurrection will be," Peter had told them. It made enough sense to Lydia and Danny hadn't found anything in his research that said otherwise.

The first night of the resurrection was easy enough. The hallucinations were very obviously hallucinations and now that Lydia knew why she was seeing things the random dirt and bugs didn't freak her out quite so much. Don't get her wrong, they were still unnerving and she could very much do without them, but knowing their source and cause went a long way towards keeping her outwardly calm. Scott and Isaac still cast her worried glances every time her heart sped up at the sight of beetles scuttling across her lab table or some other such nonsense, but they didn't say anything to her, just kept an eye on her, probably waiting for a sign that something was actually wrong.

The second night was a little harder. Half decomposed corpses were all she dreamed about and she woke up at least three times to Aiden pulling her back into bed from the window. There was one point where she'd almost screamed and alerted every werewolf in the county about there being something going on. She was actually quite proud of herself for controlling it. Her banshee instincts would not get the best of her, not now that she knew about them.

The third night there wouldn't be any sleep. Lydia was the focus of the spell and Peter stressed that she had to stay awake. Ethan and Aiden were there because it took an alpha's power to resurrect another wolf.

"You said they might lose their alpha status," Lydia said, leaning against the Nemeton, he hands idly fiddling with one of Danny's. He was there mostly for support, but also because he didn't trust Peter one bit. He always had been a great judge of character. "But when Derek brought you back he was still an alpha."

Peter smiled at her as he moved to uncover what was left of Erica and Boyd. The sight wasn't pretty and even though Lydia had puny human senses she could smell the rot and decay on them. Peter had laid them out nicely, on their backs, hands joined in the center. Lydia had been expecting little more than two piles of bones and dirt, she was surprised by the care he showed towards them.

"Derek and I are related, first of all, which helped," he answered her. "My death was also, surprisingly, less traumatic and I had set up a failsafe before I died. These two weren't as fortunate."

He arranged them around the bodies that rested in front of the Nemeton, Lydia holding Ethan and Aiden's hands while they each rested one on the corpses. Danny was instructed to keep his distance, so he hovered just a few feet away from them, worry etched into every line of his body. Peter worked the spell, assuring them that all they had to do was sit there and not break the chain.

Simple enough, Lydia thought. Just sit there and not let any hallucinations that might come over her freak her out too much, sure. Everything was going smoothly for the first hour. Lydia wasn't a fan of sitting on the cold, damp ground, but it was a small price to pay if she could honestly bring these two back from the dead. She remembered Boyd from the short amount of time they'd spent in the darach-infested hotel. The terror was still fresh in her mind from when she and Stiles desperately tried to think of a way to keep him from drowning himself in a bathtub. She thought about Erica and her magical, overnight transformation from seizure-ridden wall flower to sexual bombshell. Lydia promised herself that as soon as Erica was well enough she'd take her shopping and give her make up tips.

Lydia allowed herself to wonder if maybe she'd been a huge softie this whole time or if it was a pack thing that she was feeling protective and affectionate to a pair of people she hardly knew. She had never been one for charity cases before, but a lot had changed in a year and Lydia apparently wasn't exempt from that. She wasn't sure if she liked that being around supernatural creatures of the night was affecting her, but she knew that there wasn't really any changing it, seeing as she was one herself.

Hour two sluggishly rolled past. The ground was getting even more uncomfortable as time went on and Lydia had already nearly jumped up after seeing a spider crawling over her leg, thankfully she'd been able to use Aiden's hand to bat it off of her without breaking the connection. Danny had stopped his pacing and had taken a seat against a nearby tree where he and Ethan could keep eye contact.

It took three hours for something to actually start happening. There was a strange creaking noise, not unlike a loose floorboard in an old house. Lydia looked up at the Nemeton, she was sure the noise was coming from the giant, magic stump and judging by the face that everyone else was looking at it told Lydia she hadn't just been hearing things. When all the Nemeton did was creak at them Lydia relaxed. It was only a few more minutes before she noticed that the corpses were changing too.

Slowly the smell of decay subsided, the dirt and grime that was clinging to the bones began to give way to what Lydia recognized as tendons and soon muscles. "Am I the only one seeing this?" she asked, eyes glued to the pair of bodies that were slowly rebuilding themselves before her very eyes.

Ethan shook his head. His eyes were wide and glowing red as he watched in shock. "No, I see it too."

"Oh my God," Danny said as he crept closer. He remembered to keep several feet away but Lydia could see out of the corner of her eye that he was itching to get closer and get a good look.

Peter grinned from his perch on top of the Nemeton. "Won't be long now."

For the next several hours they sat there and watched with a mix of amazement and horror as Boyd and Erica's bodies rebuilt themselves. Lydia felt a bit ill as they watched the rebirth of each internal organ and she kept herself from getting sick all over everyone by naming each organ and its functions as they reformed. It was only marginally calming, but it was better than losing the small amount of food she'd managed to get down for dinner.

The first soft lights of dawn were filtering through the thin trees as Erica and Boyd's epidermises were finishing splicing themselves together. Both werewolves were stark naked and still unconscious but Lydia could see them breathing. Their breaths were shallow and if she hadn't been sitting practically on top of them she wouldn't have been able to see the movement at all, but it was there. As the sunlight reached them Lydia felt both twins tense up, their heads falling low. Ethen let out a low whine while Aiden growled from deep within his chest. They were tense and kept their heads lowered for a while. Once they raised them, though, Lydia saw two pairs of matching, glowing blue eyes.

The sight briefly reminded her of Jackson, but she disregarded the memory with practiced skill.

It took a few more minutes for Peter to stand and toss the blanket over the prone forms of the newly resurrected wolves. "It's done," he said. "They'll wake up soon."

Thankful, Lydia stood on shaky legs, careful to keep herself upright. She made a cursory attempt at dusting the dirt off of her sweat pants, but knew that they were probably a lost cause. It was fine, she'd worn these ones for a reason. Stretching out her stiff limbs Lydia looked over at the twins. Danny was already checking Ethen over, obviously concerned about the effect becoming an omega again would have on his boyfriend. Lydia was slightly more familiar with werewolves so she wasn't particularly worried about Aiden. He looked a little pale but she could see him smiling as he looked down at Erica and Boyd.

"You two should get out of here," Lydia said. "No offense but I doubt the first people these two want to see are two of the people responsible for their deaths."

They nodded, obviously agreeing with Lydia. Danny stayed behind with her as they watched the twins head out. "Should we call McCall and the others? These guys are probably going to need some friendly faces," Danny said, giving the still unconscious pair a look.

"I'll take care of that," Lydia said. Everyone had been saying she needed to get more acquainted with her abilities, that she should learn how to use them. Well, she thought, here goes nothing.

With a deep breath Lydia felt the cold knot in her chest that was almost always there, the one that grew colder and tighter when she was following her instincts to a body. She latched on to it and screamed, pitching her voice as high as she could. It would definitely wake the wolves in town. Isaac and Scott would be there within fifteen minutes, quicker if they didn't stop to collect Stiles. Derek and Cora should be even faster. Lydia emptied her lungs of air and leaned into Danny, slightly out of breath until she heard the whimpers.

Both of them turned around to see both Erica and Boyd sitting up, arms wrapped around each other. They were filthy. Both of them were covered in dirt and Erica's hair was matted and filled with sticks and leaves, but they were alive. Peter had retreated to the far end of the small clearing. He watched from his spot against one of the thicker trees as Lydia and Danny slowly approached the pair.

Slowly, Lydia kneeled next to Erica and gently placed a hand on her shaking shoulder. "Hey, easy," she said in the kindest voice she could manage. "It's okay, everything's gonna be fine."

Boyd blinked over at her, his eyes and Erica's both the glowing yellow of betas. "Lydia?" Erica asked, her voice thin and shaking.

Lydia smiled at her. Danny kneeled down next to her as well. She was thankful, he was always better at the whole calming gestures thing. "Derek and the others are on their way," he told them. "Just relax."

Poor Boyd and Erica were still confused and nervous, but they didn't freak out and try to bolt. Absently, Lydia wondered if Scott would also alert Allison to Lydia's call. She thought about texting Scott to not bother, that it'd be for the better to just let Allison sit this one out, but she was sure it was too late anyway. Erica never let go of Boyd but she did reposition slightly to lean against Lydia a bit as the redhead started working through her hair, tutting softly and listing of products that Erica should use on her hair to get it back to its once healthy sheen. The aimless chatter seemed to be helping to calm Erica down, which in turn eased Boyd's tense muscles. It was also keeping Lydia from feeling like she was going to jump out of her skin, so she kept talking. Once she ran out of hair tips Lydia went on about school gossip, the pointless stuff like who was dating who, what new fashion trends were trying to be the new thing, and the like.

To Lydia's surprise it was Scott and Isaac to show up first, being trailed by Stiles in his jeep not three minutes later. Cora and Derek were only another two minutes coming. Their reactions ranged from Scott's awed "Oh my God" to Derek's "What did you do?" to Isaac collapsing to his knees and hugging both Erica and Boyd and crying. Allison never showed, Scott amazingly hadn't thought to text her in his scramble to get to Lydia (luckily Stiles had been spending the night at Scott's or he might not have gotten the memo either).

None of them made it into school that day, none of them really cared, it was the day before winter break, there was nothing to miss.

They all helped Erica and Boyd get cleaned up. They were still tired and moved sluggishly, but with each day they looked more and more alive. It took three whole days for them to stop looking like walking corpses and a fourth before they were ready to face their parents. The story was that the pair of them had been planning to elope but on their way to Vegas they'd run into trouble. Nothing to scary but it was convincing enough for both sets of parents who were happy to have their kids back.

Once they explained themselves Scott accepted Ethan and Aiden into his pack. Erica and Boyd were understandably wary of the twins for a long while, but they trusted Scott's judgment. Allison was another hurdle. Boyd hadn't forgiven her before he'd died and things didn't look like they would be changing anytime soon to Lydia. They didn't say anything about Allison being involved in pack meetings, though, and eventually they stopped watching her like she was going to start shooting them full of arrows any second. Peter was thanked but Scott still wasn't willing to allow him a place in his pack.

By the time Christmas had come and gone everyone was more or less settled, if a little wary of each other. Isaac spent as much time with Boyd and Erica as he could. As far as Lydia knew he still lived with Scott and his mom, but he slept at the others' houses more often than the McCall's. Lydia couldn't blame him. After she'd learned what had been going on behind her back she's seen that they had been the first real friends Isaac had ever made, it only made sense that their return from the dead was going to have a huge impact on them.

The pack had doubled in size in one week, with the return of Erica and Boyd and the official inclusion of Ethan and Aiden. Meetings in Scott or Stiles' living rooms were cramped and moved decidedly to Derek and Cora's loft for the most part. Things were different, but they were nice. Looking around at everyone laughing and alive Lydia was glad she'd helped. The pack made her feel included and safe. Most of all though, she noticed, it made her feel like she could be herself, the smart, quick-witted, young woman she'd tried for years to hide.


End file.
